Thursday, 30 June 2016

Anyone visiting Wales
can hardly avoid noticing that there are a lot of sheep - about four
sheep for every person living in Wales!

And where there are
sheep, there's a woollen industry.

Today, most Welsh wool
is used in the carpet industry but in earlier centuries, almost every
cottage had a loom for weaving blankets and clothing, often
in the traditional Welsh Tapestry patterns. And some of the original
Welsh Woollen Mills survive today, some as museums, others as working
mills using patterns found in the Public Records Office and dating
back to the 1700s.

In earlier times, Welsh
Tapestry blankets were given as wedding gifts and dowries and were
kept as family heirlooms. More recently a Welsh Tapestry blanket was
presented to President Obama when he visited Wales.

Everyone knows about
Scottish tartans but Welsh Tapestry is less well-known, despite its
long history and its 'revivals' at various times since the 1960s.
Blankets and other textile gifts with these patterns, such as
cushions and coats, are as likely to be found in Welsh Craft and Gift
Shops as wooden 'Love Spoons' and Little Welsh Red Dragons.

But Welsh Tapestry
blankets are expensive. Of course, they are not really 'tapestries'
but a unique type of 'double-weave' cloth, sometimes known as
double-cloth, and the weaving process involves, as the name implies,
a complicated interlocking of two layers of cloth. So, while they are
warm and hard-wearing as well as attractive, they are not cheap to
produce.

As someone who lives in
Wales and who is also addicted to pattern-making - and especially
drawn to those with some kind of traditional or ethnic origin - it
was only a matter of time before I turned my attention to Welsh
Tapestry patterns.

And I have chosen a few of them to use as patterns
on non-textile gifts, such as coffee mugs and serving trays as well
as cases and sleeves to protect your electronic devices!

Here are some of them -Click on the image below to see the full collection -

Thursday, 2 June 2016

We don't necessarily
need to know anything about Islamic Art and Design to gaze in
wonderment at the patterned walls and screens of the Alhambra, the Blue Mosque, or the typically tiled floors and walls of Morocco!

You will probably have
noticed that the patterns are all based on a geometric grid and some
of these grids can be extremely complex.

If you read my last
month's blog post about William Morris, you may remember that
many of his contemporaries also created abstract patterns based on
grids. But William Morris took that one step further, using a
geometric grid to provide the structure on which to build his floral
patterns.

Islamic pattern design
does make use of some floral motifs and motifs taken from Nature but it generally depicts them in a much more formalised way.

And whereas you would
expect to see images of saints and holy figures in many Christian
churches, this is highly unlikely in a Muslim mosque. There are
differences of opinion amongst Islamic scholars about whether depicting human beings in art
and design is idolatrous and therefore contrary to the teachings of
Islam, and you can read about them in detail HERE.

But the beautiful
patterns that decorate Muslim places of worship are no less related
to the religious doctrines of Islam than the statues and paintings in
a Christian cathedral.

For instance, the geometric shape we call a 'circle' is linked to the concept of 'Infinity', which in itself is a property of Allah. This article on the BBC website goes into these fascinating connections in more detail than I have time for here.

And in the Islamic
cultural traditions, crafts and decorative arts are regarded as being
of equal status to painting and sculpture. So it's not surprising
that these have been developed to such an awe-inspiring degree!

(On the left is one of my original screenprints, from the 1980s, of a very complex Islamic pattern.)

While I love to create flowing, painterly floral patterns and mini-prints that are often based on the flowers and other plants - even
weeds! - in my garden, I am also drawn to the apparent simplicity of
geometric grids.

I stress that the word 'simplicity' must be
qualified by 'apparent' because many of the traditional Islamic
'mosaic' patterns, while appearing straightforward, are in fact based
on a complex system of geometric grids, placed on top of one another
to create a harmonious whole.

The
patterns are often constructed by overlaying circles, squares, rectangles and
other geometric shapes and I find it fascinating that just these few 'building
blocks' can result in such a variety of different patterns! On the right is an example from David Wade's book (see below) and I'm sure you can find his explanation of how the grid pattern was built up, if you visit his website.

I first
learnt a bit about Islamic Art when I was designing patterns for
cushions in a screen-printing class nearly thirty years ago. Coming
from a background of landscape painting, almost always using a
rectangular canvas, I was finding it hard to adapt to designing on a
square. So my teacher lent me a very helpful book by David Wade - "Pattern
in Islamic Art".

I've recently discovered his
wonderful website which you can explore HERE

You'll find inspiring slide-shows to enjoy as well as
detailed drawings, diagrams and analyses to learn from if you are so inclined!

As we approach the Holy
Month of Ramadan that culminates in the celebration of Eid-al-Fitr in
early July, I think it's appropriate to show some of the Greeting
Cards, Gift Bag and Wrapping Paper that I've created using, in many
cases, Islamic Patterns:

I hope you've enjoyed
this brief look into the traditions of Pattern in Islamic Art and the
ways in which we can draw inspiration from the geometric pattern
grids that it's based on to create beautiful Greeting Cards and
modern Home and Fashion Accessories for everyone.

Thursday, 5 May 2016

William Morris was not
only the 'leading light' of the Arts and Craft movement, that sought to
promote a return to handicrafts, as opposed to machine-made goods, in
the late 19th Century.

He was probably one of the greatest surface
pattern designers (amongst other things!) of all time! And those of us who
make patterns for home furnishings and wallpaper can learn a lot from the study of his
work!

William Morris is
probably best known for his wallpaper and household fabric designs. But he was skilled in many crafts, such as weaving, embroidery and
stained glass.

Unlike Laura Ashley,
William Morris was a skilled draughtsman, as you can see from these detailed working drawings for his 'Bluebell' design.

William Morris working drawings

Also, unlike Laura Ashley,
Morris's pattern designs were intended for use in the home, rather
than for fashion textiles.

But there is a similarity! Like Laura Ashley's, William Morris's design theories were firmly rooted in his beliefs and attitudes
to life.

He was horrified by the poor quality and design of the products of mass
industrialisation. And his ardently socialist views led him to want
to make 'art' for everyone, not just for those born into wealth, like
himself.

"I do
not want art for a few, any more than education for a few, or freedom
for a few." William Morris.

This earlier blog post, by the
way, explains a large part of the reason that I still like to create Greeting
Cards!

Morris had
some very strong views about design and because he wrote about his
views as well as giving lectures, it's not too difficult to gain some
insights into his guiding principles and the way he worked.

I'm sure
that most of us, hearing or reading the words, 'William Morris'
will immediately think of his floral patterns for wallpapers and
curtains, many of which are still available and popular today.

In the 1970s I decorated a bay-windowed bedroom in our
Victorian house in Sevenoaks with William Morris wallpaper and
matching curtains, available at that time from Sandersons. The room was not as big as I would have liked and
the matching curtains and walls made it appear quite a bit larger.

Then, in the
late 1980s, our Edwardian Norwich home had William Morris wallpaper in the
hall, stairs, landing and cloakroom - by this time, bought from habitat, as far as I remember!

And a different Morris pattern for the
curtains of a small and cosy living room. Wisely, the new owners of
the house asked to keep the curtains when we moved out!

But I took the beautiful Laura Ashley lace curtains (on the left) with me and finally had to replace them with something much inferior a couple of years ago because, having provided nearly 25 years good service, they were about to fall to pieces!

Now I just
have a couple of cushions and a tablecloth with William Morris
designs that have been re-coloured at a later date - and a set of Garden Hand Tools from the V & A! (Far too pretty to use!)

What
these all have in common is that they are floral patterns.

I don't
think I've ever seen a William Morris design that isn't about
flowers or fruit! I think it's very strange that we tend to shy away from
using floral patterns or designs for men, as I pointed out in an earlier blog post - HERE!

William Morris loved
Nature and saw it as the antidote to the effects of industrialisation.

I have an old
book about William Morris, written by Ray Watkinson in the 1960s and
it contains some Morris quotes about Nature, such as:

"The
fields are all butter-cuppy. The elms are mostly green up to their
tops; the hawthorn not out, but the crabs beautiful, and also that
white-beam (I think they call it) with the umbelliferous flowers. In
the garden we have lots of tulips out looking beautiful; the white
bluebells and some blue ones; some of the anemones are in blossom and
they all soon will be; they are very lovely. Apple blossom for the
most part only in bud, but that cherry tree near that arbour opposite
my window is a mass of bloom. The heartseases are beautiful; a few of
the Iceland poppies are out; the raspberries are showing for
blossom." William Morris

I think he
must have written this at about this time of year, early May!

Interestingly,
the author of my book, describes William Morris's intentions when it
comes to his home furnishings in a way that certainly resonates with me.

"Although
for him repose is an essential quality which the designer should
pursue, this does not mean that designs should be blank and static;
rather that they should give us something of the relaxed pleasure of
a garden. A wallpaper should be able to turn a room into a bower, a
refuge, without insisting on its presence in a room with us." Ray Watkinon

Later, the
American architect/designer, Frank Lloyd Wright, also believed it was
important for our well-being to 'bring nature inside', though his
methods were very different. Here's another blog post I came across about the therapeutic properties of
'bringing the outside in'!

And I can
wholeheartedly agree with this. You may have noticed that when in
doubt, I design florals for the home!

But at the
same time, William Morris didn't believe in letting Nature run riot
in his designs.

Another passage from my book:

"Entirely
at one with his contemporaries in his recognition of the part played
by geometric order, Morris required a design to play on the
imagination for him, therefore there must always be some image." Ray Watkinson

So -
Morris's patterns are representations of Nature but they are also
based on some kind of geometric grid or structure, and I think it is largely
this which has made his surface patterns so successful and timeless. Here, in this pattern, named 'Lodden', you can clearly see the traditional 'ogee-shaped' grid on which the pattern is constructed.

Lodden by William Morris

Nature,
Geometry and one more 'ingredient' is ever-present in William Morris
designs - Depth.

Arbutus by William Morris

"Wallpapers,
he says in his lecture on Pattern Designing, must operate within a
little depth. There must be a slight illusion - not as to the forms
of the motif, but as to relative depth. And quite consistently we
find in his patterns that one element is developed and spread like a
net over another, with differences of scale and weight as to parts,
so that we are always aware of a major pattern playing over a minor
one." Ray Watkinson.

Daisy by William Morris

This third
point is something that Morris developed over time but even in his
earliest known wallpaper design, Daisy, he did not leave the
background plain but added texture that immediately gives depth.

It looks to me as if he was influenced by his work in textiles - weaving and embroidery - but that's just my theory.

So there we
have three important points to bear in mind when designing for home
furnishing fabrics and wallpapers:

Bring
Nature inside in a way that is restful to the eye.

Organise
your patterns on a geometric grid.

Add depth
by overlaying your main pattern on a secondary pattern.

I wish I had
been taught these things on the Surface Pattern course I did three
years ago, instead of having to do my own research more recently.

Not
that I would have wanted to try to imitate William Morris, of course! But these are
three worthwhile principles to bear in mind when designing patterns
for the home, even though we are bound to interpret them to fit our
own style. Quite by
chance, I think my 'Morning Glory' pattern has incorporated these
three 'rules' to some extent, at least in the main pattern, which is based on an 'ogee' layout.

Here are
the fabrics I've designed for the collection, each of them
coordinating with the main pattern, as you can see from the Faux
Patchwork!

I very much hope that any pattern designers reading this will have learnt something helpful.

But I'm sure that anyone, designer or not, will have found something to interest them in this brief look at some of the theories behind the pattern designs of one of world's greatest surface pattern designers!

Thursday, 21 April 2016

I've just finished
reading 'A Life by Design', a biography of Laura Ashley, written soon
after her tragic fall, from which she never regained consciousness, at
the age of 60.

I read the book when it was first published in 1990 but at
that time, I read it from the point of view of a Laura Ashley Home
Furnishings customer, having used gallons of Laura Ashley Navy paint
in the refurbishment of my Edwardian home in Norwich. I even painted the outside
of the re-sprayed, genuine ball-and-claw-footed bath that we found in an outhouse when we bought the house.

And here's the 'Laura Ashley Navy' front door of my next (Victorian) home!

But this time around, I
read it as a designer, more specifically a surface pattern designer
with a strong interest in designing textiles for fashion and home
furnishings.

And it was as if I was
reading it for the first time. So many things jumped out at me that
hadn't really interested me back in 1990.

First and foremost, I
was quite shocked to read that Laura Ashley wasn't exactly a designer!
Neither she nor her husband, Bernard, could draw and of course, they started their business well before the days of computers!

The legendary
little 'sweater scarves', table mats and tea-towels that they printed on the kitchen table of their Pimlico flat in the 1950s, ('fixing' the colour by baking in the oven, where some fell down and burnt!), these small items had bold geometric
shapes a patterns, which was all that their rather primitive printing equipment
could cope with.

But they sold well,
because Audrey Hepburn had popularised the 'sweater scarf' in the
popular film, 'Roman Holiday'.

However, Laura was already intensely interested in tiny floral printed and striped fabrics. She had worked as a secretary at the National Federation of Women's Institutes and when she visited one of their handicraft exhibitions at the Victoria & Albert museum, she realised that women were capable of working at home to produce textiles that were of museum standard. She was particularly struck by the patchwork and scoured the shops to find suitable fabrics so that she could make her own while awaiting the birth of her first child.

As we moved through the
1960s, fashion trends changed dramatically. Out went the full skirts
with hooped petticoats and in came the mini-skirt and sharply cut
dresses and coats with geometric patterns. In case that was before
your time, you can get a flavour of the era HERE

And it was in 1968 that
Laura Ashley - or rather, Bernard, her husband, opened their first
dress shop, selling dresses that were almost shockingly different!
Bernard oversaw the printing, dealt with the marketing and business
side of things - so, given that she was not a designer, in the usual
sense of the word, what part did Laura play?

Well, she did supervise
the making up of the garments in Wales and researched patterns to use,
spending a great deal of time in libraries and museums, pouring over antique pattern
books and so on.

But Laura's essential contribution to
what was becoming a successful business venture, was her 'unique idea'!

Coming from a Welsh non-conformist background,Laura Ashley had her
'puritanical' side. But
she was also a romantic, she loved the countryside and nature and she
was more drawn to the fashions of bye-gone ages than to the current
trends. She may have had some rather naive ideas about how a working
farmer's wife would have dressed in days of yore, but her dresses
were based on earlier styles and the fabric patterns were, at least to
begin with, mainly historical.

She firmly believed
that women were more interested in dressing to look beautiful than in
following the latest fashions. And she also took the view that the
more you cover up - long skirts, long sleeves etc - the more alluring
you will be!

Put those two beliefs together and you have the classic Laura Ashley dress of the late-Sixties and Seventies.

'Pretty but Prim' would
be how I would describe those early dresses that turned the Laura
Ashley brand into household name.

I remember my first visit to a Laura
Ashley dress shop, when I was staying with my sister-in-law in Oxford
- to me it was heaven on earth! In fact I never bought a Laura Ashley
dress because I loved dressmaking and made my own in similar styles.
But I do still have a full-length Laura Ashley nightdress, complete
with pin tucks, tiny, concealed, pearl buttons, and lace-trimmed high collar and
long sleeves. It's somewhat the worse for wear now but somehow I
don't want to turn it into a cleaning cloth so it stays at the bottom of my
drawer!

Looking back, it seems
strange now that the only fashion choices at that time were limited to
'bold geometric' or 'romantic with frills'! Today's fashion trends
are far more eclectic so that you could almost believe that 'anything
goes'.

But even so, I think those two main, sharply contrasting,
trends are still around.

Alongside the 'funky', 'quirky', sometimes
bordering on 'outrageous' fashions, you only need to delve into
Pinterest or visit an online store such as Etsy to see that
nostalgic, romantic and downright 'pretty' is still as popular as
ever.

Of the two design
strands, the nostalgic, vintage 'look' is easier to live with in the
long-term. Eventually, in the 1980s, Laura Ashley branched out into
Home Furnishings. I'm only surprised she left it so long.

I used
Laura Ashley Brick Red wallpaper on the staircase, above the dado
rail, in my Victorian home in Hereford.

And the colour was the
perfect backdrop for the pictures I hung on that wall.

I also still
use a Laura Ashley tea-cosy! Like all of her products, the quality is head and shoulders above most others.

Sadly, I've never found
a good replacement for my Laura Ashley heavy cotton lace curtains, that looked
fabulous, hung over slimline, navy blue Venetian Blinds, in three different
homes, from 1987 - 2013, when they finally started to fall apart, as you can see by the hole down near the hem!

Bright, bold and
minimalist is exciting, but perhaps more suitable for clothing than
for home furnishings, which we expect to last somewhat longer than a
dress, bought and worn today, possibly discarded a few months later! That is
not to say that the more 'modern' style doesn't look great in an
office building or a city apartment.

But for a home,
especially a period home, the vintage, 'shabby chic' is much more
comfortable to live with, day in day out, for a number of years.

I'm far from suggesting
that we decorate and furnish our homes as faithful replicas of times
gone by. But our surroundings do affect our mood and some of the more
outlandish patterns currently available seem to have an almost
'aggressive' feel to them. Whereas a few 'pretty things' can soften
the edges of our daily existence.

So here are a couple of
my Home Furnishings Collections - not exactly 'Laura Ashley' but also based on floral designs and patterns -